Inside the Pack: Hobby Goals for 2021

Last week, I reviewed the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2020. I didn’t quite achieve all of them, but this year, I have some new goals to add, along with trying to do the few that fell by the wayside last year.

1. Ramp up selling on ebay. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, at some point this month ebay will introduce a new low-cost shipping method for cheap sports cards. This will allow me to sell cards cheaply and ship them cheaply without worrying about a lack of tracking info or losing my top rated seller designation. I’ve been working on a plan to list a whole lot of cards at $2 each; now I will just need to implement the plan. With over 1,000 items in my ebay store under normal circumstances, the added inventory could cause a lot of things to go wrong, so I need to be meticulous in my implementation.
2. Get out of my storage unit. In July I bought my largest collection ever, which was the contents of a former card shop. With over a million cards, I needed a space for it that wasn’t in my house. But at $130 a month, I’d love to get out of there ASAP. In order to do that, I’ll need to move a large volume of cards, which goes along with #1 above, and…
3. Actually go to the National. This was one of those failed goals from last year that I’m carrying forward to this year. Once again, I have my room booked, and rather than flying, I’ve booked a rental van to help me carry all the cards to Chicago. I’m hoping that by July I have the Covid-19 vaccine, and I’m hoping that most people in general have it so that we can all return to some normalcy.
4. Branch out to non-sports cards. A few weeks ago I opened my first ever box of non-sports cards, Garbage Pail Kids Sapphire Edition. It was the most fun I had opening a product in years. It’s had me wondering what else the world of non-sport cards has to offer me. I’m hoping this year to dip my toe in that side of the hobby, though knowing me, it’s likely to be more in vintage than in new releases.
5. Buy one of my white whale cards. I have a few cards I’ve been chasing down for a long time but haven’t found the right graded or raw card at the right price. The two biggest cards on this list for me are the 1950 Drake’s and 1964 Boy Scouts Duke Snider cards. There are also a few short prints in the 2006 Fleer Nickname Greats set I decided to start collecting that I’d like to chase down. I’m also interested in acquiring a 1948 Topps Magic Babe Ruth and, in a real pipe dream, a 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson, though I think that one has to wait a while.

I’d love to hear some of your collecting goals for 2021. Comment and let me know what you hope to achieve this year!